Georgia Cotton Commission’s 2025 Trustees’ Award Winners

The Georgia Cotton Commission’s Trustees’ Awards were presented at the 2025 Georgia Cotton Commission Annual Meeting January 29 in Tifton. The Trustees’ Awards are awarded to individuals who have dedicated themselves to the advancement of the cotton industry in Georgia. Producers, research and extension specialists and other cotton industry associates of high character and integrity who have given exceptional service to the cotton industry are eligible to receive this award.

The award was named after the Georgia Colonial Trustees who set out to create an agricultural colony to expedite agriculture productivity, which led to a ten acre “Trustee Garden” to display “modern” farming techniques. The Trustee Garden was established in 1734 in Savannah, Georgia. Many crops were experimented with that first year, but cotton was the crop that thrived and has been planted in Georgia every year since. Previous winners of the Trustees’ Awards include Louie Perry, Mike Lucas, Bob McLendon, Ronnie Lee and Chuck Coley.

The recipients of this year’s Trustees’ Awards are Marvin Ruark and Johnny L. Crawford.

Marvin Ruark grew up on his family’s cotton farm in Bostwick, Georgia and has been farming for over 50 years in Morgan County carrying on his family tradition and bought the Bostwick Cotton Gin in the 1970s. Their family farm produces cotton, turfgrass, broilers and cattle.

Ruark has served as a board member of both Morgan County Farm Bureau and Georgia Farm Bureau, and District Supervisor for the Piedmont Soil and Water Conservation District, Secretary/Treasurer of the Boll Weevil Eradication Foundation. He has also served as a council delegate and board member for the National Cotton Council, Southern Cotton Growers, and the Cotton Board. Ruark was a board member for the Georgia Cotton Commission from 1980 to 2015.

Ruark and his wife Bebe have four children, 9 grandchildren and 7 great-grandkids with one on the way. The Ruarks attend Gibbs Memorial Baptist Church in Bostwick.

Johnny L. Crawford was born into a farming family in Grady County, Georgia. He graduated from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC) in 1961 and the University of Georgia in 1963. He then obtained his masters degree and completed his PhD in Plant Pathology. In his first position with UGA, Crawford was Extension Plant Pathologist-Cotton based in Tifton, and was a charter member of the Extension Cotton Team. He became the Extension Agronomist for Cotton in 1986 and in the early 1990’s became Head of the Extension Plant Pathology Department, where he continued to lead the Cotton Team.

Crawford was awarded the National Cotton Council’s Cotton Foundation Fellowship and was appointed D. W. Brooks Distinguished Professor of Agronomy in 1989. Crawford was recognized as the Cotton Specialist of the Year in 1994.

After retirement, Crawford remained active in agriculture as a cotton producer and President and General Manager of South Central Georgia Gin Company. He is a deacon and bible teacher at Northside Baptist Church of Tifton. He and wife Yvonne live in Chula and have 3 children and 8 grandchildren.

The Georgia Cotton Commission is a producer-funded organization located in Perry, Georgia. The Commission began in 1965. Georgia cotton producers pay an assessment enabling the Commission to invest in programs of research, promotion, and education on behalf of all cotton producers of Georgia. For more information about the Georgia Cotton Commission please call 478-988-4235 or on the web at www.georgiacottoncommission.org.